In the coming weeks many of you are going out to buy the ubiquitous tree or wreath (or getting the faux ones out of storage). For those that grew up with the tradition, nothing can be more comforting than coming home to your own holiday decoration.
I grew up down the street from a very historic tree farm. Picking our tree was a yearly family excursion full of hayrides, hot apple cider and shopping for seasonal gifts (maple syrup, anyone?). Ours would be live, with the roots intact, and we would plant it in January.
Many people would buy cut trees, enjoying the tradition of hunting their own down and cutting it, which would be either mulched after the holidays or left out in the back yard (or in a pile at the landfill) to biodegrade. The supply always felt abundant and easily renewed, and the waste only seemed to be a benefit for the surrounding countryside.
After transplanting myself to the city, I was amazed by the overnight immigration of sidewalk tree vendors and the much larger tree consumption.
Where did these people come from?
How did they manage to never run out of trees?
Why would anyone stay out in the numbing cold for over 8 hours at a time?
Are we being responsible consumers by buying these trees?
In the coming week, weather permitting, I will be spending quality time with citys seasonal sidewalk tree vendors, hopefully getting a peek at their digs and a few shots of proud new tree owners.
As for our mass seasonal tree consumption, we dont have many back yards for biodegrading or many neighbors that happen to have mulchers (paper shredders just wont work). But there are good arguments that support live trees over fake and our own Department of Sanitation works very hard to recycle the trees once they hit the curb. In the end, the trees are used in fertilizing our parks!
While we're going to go looking for tree seller to stay up all night with, here's a guide to picking and keeping your live tree.
- Matt N. (Photo: Lida Rose)
(not Maxwell)
I remember a LOVELY story about a tree vendor who returns yearly to the sidewalks of New York (Jane Street?) published in one of the Country shelter mags. Told by the vendor himself, it was more about how he and his family were overwhelmed by the generosity of the neighborhood and the "ritual of return" than the mechanics of the tree-farming. But it really captured the season in a way that was very moving.
Looking forward to more of this pine-scented yarn, Matt! Let us know when/where you find your overnight outpost!
Our own family tree-finding excursion was always more comedy of errors ("comedy" only in retrospect) than quaint Currier & Ives memory. It usually involved my Scottish father's proclaration of "this one will do... it's going in a corner so it only needs one good side" followed by my Irish mother's silent (fury) night.
One-too-many of these face-offs lead to the purchase of a Sears artificial tree, made up of what closely resembled toilet brush heads. And a cryptic color-coded system of branch arrangement that prepared me well for later years of Ikea assemble-it-yourself projects.
Lack of pine scent, and the fact the the artificial shed more than the real led to a back-to-nature movement a few years later.
The only great thing about the artificial was how it stood arrow-straight and rock-solid in its stand. I'll spare you the THREE stories of falling trees from over the years. But WILL tell you that if a tree falls in a living room, it DOES make a sound.
Christmas tree stories are a family holiday staple! One year we had a house in the mountains and my dad went out on Christmas Eve night in a raging blizzard to find a tree, and when he came home we realized there was no tree stand. The next day I planted it outside in the snow and hung it with fruit loops for the birds.
Hey, we had that Sears tree! The other great thing about its blatant artificiality was that it was a cinch to distribute lights evenly. I became Official Tree Assembler and Decorator at a very tender age, preparing me for a life of bossiness about where *exactly* things ought to go.
Last year I bought a cut tree from a sidewalk vendor. A Canadian friend of mine who lives in the City had told me that most of them are from Canada, and sure enough the French Canadian couple who sold me my tree (on Broadway a few blocks south of Lincoln Center) told me they'd been coming to the same spot to sell trees for about 30 years. They told me of selling to the same families year after year and the kindness of their regular patrons.
This year -- across town -- my girlfriend and I decided to buy a living Dwarf Alberta Spruce from the local florist and to plant it in my parents' yard after the holidays as a permanent reminder of our first Christmas together.
I'm grateful that by the end of the season, I will have done both.
Technical question -- OK, how do we highlight and copy and paste Doug's actual entire self (or at least his mind -- who knows about his looks?) in real-live meatspace and paste, paste, paste him into the lives of all of our favorite straight, single female friends?
For the Christmas of my mother's senior year, her father bought her a white flocked real Christmas tree from their local florist, completely decorated with only blue ornaments.
When I was growing up, we almost always had a real Christmas tree, flocked white, but my father would flock it himself. We had two vaccuum cleaners; one that we used for normal use, and one very, very old one that had the ability to reverse itself and blow out, so that's the one that he used to flock the tree with.
In Louisiana, a flocked tree was about the only way you would ever see any tree with "snow" on it, because it only snowed twice the whole time I lived with my folks -- once when I was about 10 and again when I was about 15.
By the way, I saw a vaccuum cleaner very much like he used when one of the museums had an Art Deco show a year or two ago, which makes me think it was REALLY old.
Curtis, you are much too kind. But if you find a way to multiply anyone, my girlfriend is the much better catch.
Yeah, well, I guess I'm not finding myself very often within earshot of very many single straight guys geshreying (sp?) about how there's no good single women left.
Just got back from IKEA. (No, I don't LIVE there. It's just that the Burbank store is 3 blocks from my office.) December 8-11, they are selling Christmas trees for $20. For every tree purchased today through the 11th, you get a $20 IKEA gift card. So, the tree is pretty much free (if you're a frequent IKEA shopper).
For urban dwellers of the "SSBS" ilk, they had this modern-looking Glansa "light tree" with 57 bulbs for $19.99. Just unbox and plug in. Sweet! http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10103&storeId=12&langId=-1&productId=67490
Also, for Generation TV babies like myself, Urban Outfitters (apologies again, Fiona) has a tabletop replica of the sad little tree from A Charlie Brown Christmas for $24.00. Not available online, but plenty in stock at the stores I've visited. http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=9352&itemType=PRODUCT&iProductID=9352
I'll probably get the Glansa for myself tomorrow.
I sadly committed myself to the fact that I'm using my pathetic fake tree this year (you may remember I was thinking of spray painting it silver). I mean, you can SEE the joints in the trunk. Pathetic. I was raised on real trees, and even the slightly upper end fake trees that are much better than mine disappoint me. But, after my mishaps with getting a huge real tree in and out of my apartment last year, I went for a real garland and stuck with the fake tree. Thanks..this has been therapeutic. :)
Christine--
Even the thinnest artificial tree can be stunning. (Did "A Charlie Brown Christmas" not teach you people ANYTHING?!?) :)
The secret is adding in other botanicals (real, dried or faux)... eucalyptus works amazingly well, but branches, flowers (Amaryllis!), dried stuff, even pheasant feathers tucked into all the "negative spaces" (there is nothing truly "negative" about ANY kind of Christmas tree!!) will make your tree gor-geous. I actually think artificial trees are easier to decorate than real...
I think I've asked, but are you in NYC? I don't do a tree anymore (since I travel at Christmas) but as you can tell I miss the process just a bit...
Matt, thanks again for taking us down this thread!
my best friend from college was a tree "guy" for years and years, originally in brooklyn out by sheepshead bay, and then he "grew" up, he was given the plum position of selling trees in the city, on Second Ave in the high teens
once i moved to the city, i would go and hang out with him after i would get out of work
it was SOOOOOOOOOOO SO SO SO SO SO very much fun!
i loved helping the families pick out the trees, he (and the other guys) loved having me around to help the families pick out tress so they could sit in the RV, play video games and uh, smoke some trees
whenever we'd get too cold, one or two of us would walk a block down 2nd ave to this magnificent dive bar, i can't remember the name, but i saw this weekend that its now out of business
it was below street level and had a golfing and horse racing theme, and the bartenderlady LOVED my best friend
he's such a cutie!
she would always give us shots of whisky (to warm the cockles), coffee and if she had it, some hot soup
but, now that best friend is a high powered lawyer, we only have the memories
those were good days
Well done, Ann. I don't know if you meant to write a poem, but I think you did.
Hey, Enrique, I forgive you. ;)
I admit that I haven't gone in there forever, but UO seems to be morphing into the budget version of Anthropologie, judging by the windows I walk by every time I go to the gym. I wonder how that's going to work out. You would think it would cannabalize some of the Anthropolgie business, but maybe not. (At least UO has menswear cornered for now.)
ann--
Enjoying the company of strapping, pine-sap-scented tree wranglers and freshly-warmed cockles. YOU are my kind of gal.
Enrique-
Although it says, "Item not available", I LOVE that Charlie Brown Christmas tree! It's hilarious and adorable at the same time!
The same guy from Maine, Daryl, shows up every year to sell his trees on my block. He has a massive area (better known as the park for our complex) in which to sell his trees, wreaths, maple syrup, etc... The block is strung with Christmas lights and bows, Christmas music is played and the smell of pine is wonderful! I never buy a tree due to lack of space but I really love the presence of pine for the month. I just grab the discarded lower branches that pile up on the side and scatter them around the apt.
Anne - and anyone else - where is that stand located? It sounds wonderful, if it is on my way this weekend I would love to swing by...maple syrup...yummy...
The tree boys in my 'hood are from Montreal. A good bunch of guys and now I am determined to bring them out some cocoa late at night since they are out there 24/7. Crazy Canadians!